1% Notes: Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols
My best ideas come from the sea.
The sun glittering on the water. The sound of waves. It calms me down and inspires me at the same time. Every coast holiday, I come back with new insights and energy I didn’t have a week earlier.
For a long time I thought it was just the break. Then I read Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols. He spent years studying why water does this to us.
His theory: water flips your brain from “Red Mind” to “Blue Mind.” Red Mind is stressed, overstimulated, the state most of us live in. Blue Mind is calm and creative. It’s measurable on brain scans.
- Cortisol drops. Heart rate slows. Dopamine and serotonin go up.
- Your default mode network switches on. That’s where creative ideas come from.
- The most creative thinkers in history lived near water. That’s probably not a coincidence.
- You don’t need the ocean. A river, a fountain, even rain or a long shower triggers it.
So my best ideas at the coast aren’t a vacation thing. That’s just biology.
Manifesting like a legend
I just watched the Michael Jackson movie, and days later I’m still inspired by it.
I’ve been an MJ fan my whole life. Some of his songs still pop up in my playlist every week. The reviews are split, like always with him. Critics tear it apart. Fans love it. I’m in the second camp.
What surprised me was Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, who plays him.
The talent is in the bloodline for sure. But in this clip he explains he didn’t rely on that. He studied Michael’s principles. Work ethic. Obsession with detail. Refusing to settle for good enough. Then he layered manifestation on top.
Years just to land the role. Years more to become him. Principles plus manifestation, applied that long, turn into something magical. Real fans say there are moments he isn’t playing Michael anymore. He is Michael.
The greatest left a blueprint for becoming the greatest. Jaafar followed it.
As Theodore Roosevelt put it: “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.”
We pay forever
Got my latest book notes in my inbox from Readwise, and this one from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz really stuck with me.
It’s so true. How often do you replay an old mistake in your head? Something you can’t change anymore. We do it constantly. We pay a thousand times for the same mistake.
Humans are strange creatures.
Whose rules are these?
Kanye West made me question my whole approach to life in 30 seconds.
We spend our whole life trying to do the right thing. By rules someone else made up. We don’t even know why. We just do it. From the moment we walk into school, we’re told there’s a right answer and a wrong answer.
But you learn the most when you mess up. Every real lesson I’ve had came from a mistake, not a test. His mom told him: trying is failing. Just do what you feel.
Kanye always gets me thinking. Worth 30 seconds of your day.
Tiny upgrade: Instapaper
I’ve used Instapaper for years. I can’t imagine my life without it.
Anytime I see something good (article, blog, video, post on X) and I don’t have time to read or watch it, I save it in two clicks. Later, when I do have time, it’s all sitting there ready.
We all scroll past good stuff every day. Tell ourselves we’ll come back. We don’t. Instapaper solves that. On phone and desktop. Set it up in two minutes. Save now, read later.
Best reading habit I’ve built in years.
What I’m reading
I finished Focus On/Off by Mark Tigchelaar. A Dutch neuropsychologist who explains the four reasons your brain keeps losing focus and how to fix them.
I started reading Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz. Interesting book about a plant-based plan for optimizing your gut health.
I’m still reading The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. A fascinating book about how knowledge, progress, and explanations shape everything around us.